Queen (2022 miniseries)

Queen (Polish: Królowa) is a 2022 Polish drama television miniseries created by Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson, loosely based on the life of Polish hairdresser Antoni Cierplikowski. It was released on Netflix on 23 June 2022.

Queen
Polish Netflix poster
Polish	Królowa
Genre	Drama
Created by	Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson
Written by	Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson Ottó Geir Borg Kacper Wysocki
Directed by	Łukasz Kośmicki
Starring	Andrzej Seweryn Maria Peszek Julia Chętnicka Piotr Witkowski Kova Réa Paweł Koślik Antoni Porowski
Composer	Mikolai Stroinski
Country of origin	Poland
Original languages	Polish French English
No. of episodes	4
Production
Producers	Łukasz Dzięcioł Piotr Dzięcioł
Cinematography	Wojciech Szepel
Editor	Leszek Starzyński
Running time	45–53 minutes
Production company	Opus TV
Original release
Network	Netflix
Release	23 June 2022 (2022-06-23)

Premise

A Polish tailor and drag queen living in Paris returns to his hometown in Lower Silesia to make amends with his daughter.^[1][2]

Cast

• Andrzej Seweryn as Sylwester Borkowski/Loretta
• Maria Peszek as Wioletta Nowak
• Julia Chętnicka as Izabela Nowak
• Piotr Witkowski as Bruno Adamski
• Kova Réa as Corentin
• Paweł Koślik as Ziutek
• Henryk Niebudek as Patryk Adamski
• Paweł Prokopczuk as Sebastian Adamski
• Łukasz Gawroński as Darek Adamski
• Wiktoria Kruszczyńska as Baska
• Grzegorz Czerepak as Marcel
• Paweł Niczewski as Józef
• Wojciech Andrzejuk as Morus
• Jan Wojtynski as Gacek
• Filip Budweil as Zdzisław
• Justyna Ducka as Renata
• Antoni Porowski as Antoine

Episodes

No.	Title	Duration	Original release date
1	"Episode 1"	53 min	23 June 2022 (2022-06-23)
2	"Episode 2"	46 min	23 June 2022 (2022-06-23)
3	"Episode 3"	45 min	23 June 2022 (2022-06-23)
4	"Episode 4"	50 min	23 June 2022 (2022-06-23)

Production

Polish-Icelandic filmmaker Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson loosely based the series on the life of Antoni Cierplikowski, owner of Antoine de Paris. Although Cierplikowski himself was not a drag queen, he was a gay man who had moved from Poland to Paris, became an extremely successful hairdresser, and returned to Poland at the end of his life. Ásgeirsson died in April 2021 before the series had finished production; the series is dedicated to his memory.^[3]

The series was filmed in Wrocław^[4] and Nowa Ruda in 2021.^[5][6] Exterior shots of a clothing factory in Gryfów Śląski are also featured in the series.^[7]

Reception

Reviewing the series' pilot episode, Joel Keller of Decider wrote that "Queen is a gentle but powerful drama about a man who thought he was sure of who he is discovering things about himself at a late age, and being the better for it."^[8]